Tim Ferriss
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Tim Ferriss | |
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Born | Timothy Ferriss July 20, 1977 East Hampton, New York, U.S. |
Occupation | Writer, author, entrepreneur, public speaker |
Alma mater | Princeton University |
Genre | Self-help, personal development, self-experimentation |
Notable works |
Timothy Ferriss (born July 20, 1977) is an American author, entrepreneur, and public speaker.[1][2]
He has written a number of self-help books on the "4-hour" theme, some of which have appeared on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller lists, starting with The 4-Hour Workweek.[11]
Ferriss is also an angel investor and advisor to Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Evernote, and Uber, among other companies.[12][13]
Early life
Ferriss grew up in East Hampton, New York and graduated from St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire. He received a degree in East Asian Studies from Princeton University in 2000.[14][15] After graduation, Ferriss worked in sales at a data storage company.[16] Ferriss began building his own Internet business, BrainQUICKEN, while still employed at the company.[16]
Career
In 2001, Ferriss founded BrainQUICKEN and sold the company to a London-based private equity firm in 2010.[17][18][19][20][21] He said The 4-Hour Workweek was based on this period.[2]
In December 2008, Ferriss had a pilot on the History Channel called Trial by Fire, where he had one week to attempt to learn a skill normally learned over the course of many years. In the pilot episode he practiced yabusame, the Japanese art of horseback archery.[22]
In December 2013, his television series The Tim Ferriss Experiment debuted on HLN. Although there were 13 episodes shot, only a portion of those were shown on television. The show was released in its entirety on iTunes.[23]
In November 2013, Ferriss began an audiobook publishing venture, Tim Ferriss Publishing.[24] The first book published was Vagabonding by Rolf Potts.[24] Other books include The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday, Daily Rituals by Mason Currey, and What I Learned Losing A Million Dollars by Jim Paul and Brendan Moynihan.[25]
Investor and advisor
Ferriss is an angel investor and advisor to startups.[26]
He has invested or advised in startups such as StumbleUpon, Posterous, Evernote, DailyBurn, Shopify, Reputation.com, Trippy, and TaskRabbit.[27] He is a pre-seed money advisor to Uber, a company co-founded by Garrett Camp, the founder of StumbleUpon, which Ferriss also advises.[28][29]
In 2013, Ferriss raised $250,000 in under an hour to invest in Shyp by forming a syndicate on AngelList.[30] Ferriss ended up raising over $500,000 through his backers and Shyp raised a total of $2.1 million.[31] In 2018, Shyp shut down and laid off all its employees.[32][33]
The New York Times listed Ferriss among their "Notable Angel Investors" while CNN said he was "one of the planet's leading angel investors in technology."[34][35]
In 2015, Ferriss declared a long vacation from new investing. He cited the stress of the work and a feeling his impact was "minimal in the long run", and said he planned to spend time on his writing and media projects.[36]
Author
Ferriss is the author of five books, The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans, and Tribe of Mentors;
The Tim Ferriss Show
As of 2016, "The Tim Ferriss Show", a podcast, has had over 80 million downloads.[37][38] It covers topics ranging from personal and character development, to exercise routines, acting, venture capital and metaphysics.[39] It was voted “Best Podcast Episode of 2015” by Product Hunt users in their Golden Kitty Awards.[40]
Fear(Less) with Tim Ferriss
Ferriss is the host of the 2017 TV show Fear(Less) with Tim Ferriss , in which he interviews people.[41]
Influence
The New Yorker has described Ferriss as this generation's self-help guru, comparing him to personalities of similar influence in earlier times, such as Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, Stephen Covey and Spencer Johnson.[42] Wired called Ferriss “The Superman of Silicon Valley”.[43] The New York Times said Ferriss was "somewhere between [retired General Electric chairman and CEO] Jack Welch and a Buddhist monk."[16] In 2011, Newsweek declared Ferriss "The World's Best Guinea Pig".[44]
He has been named among Newsweek's Digital Power Index 100 as the seventh most powerful online personality, Fortune's "40 Under 40", one of Fast Company's "Most Innovative Business People of 2007", and a Henry Crown Fellow by the Aspen Institute.[45][46][47][48]
Both The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Workweek are in the "10 Most Highlighted Books of All Time" on Amazon Kindle.[49][50]
In 2008, Ferriss was named Wired's "Greatest Self-Promoter of All Time."[51]
Philanthropy
In 2007, Ferriss was a charity advocate and a member of the National Advisory Council of the public school nonprofit DonorsChoose.[52][53] His projects and donations have raised more than $250,000 for underfunded public school teachers and classroom projects, and his campaigns, such as dedicating his birthday to raising funds and heading LitLiberation to increase literacy worldwide, have impacted more than 60,000 students.[54][55][56][57] In March 2016, Ferriss flash funded 145 school projects posted on DonorsChoose.org in coordination with Stephen Colbert.[58][59]
In October 2014, BUILD Boston, a not-for-profit organization that uses entrepreneurship to equip Boston youth for high school and college success, honored Ferriss with the annual BUILDer Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for his work in education reform.[60][61]
Ferriss is also on the advisory board of the non-profit QuestBridge, along with LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman, David Sze, and others.[62] QuestBridge was created in 2003 to connect disadvantaged students with elite colleges and helps place over 2,000 students per year.[62]
Psychedelic research
Ferriss has raised funds for psychedelic studies at institutions such as Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.[63] In 2016, Ferriss donated $100,000 to research psychedelic drugs for the treatment of major depression.[63]
Personal life
In 2017 Ferriss moved to Austin, Texas[64] after living 17 years in Silicon Valley. In an interview with Business Insider, he blamed "intellectual smugness" and "closed-mindedness masquerading as opened-mindedness" for the move. "For the last few years I've witnessed what appears to be the forming of an echo chamber that is even more hermetically sealed than it usually is in Silicon Valley," he said.
Ferriss has stated that prior to his writing career he won in the 165 lb (75 kg) weight class at the 1999 USAWKF national Sanshou (Chinese kickboxing) championship through a process of shoving opponents out of the ring and by dramatically dehydrating himself before weigh in, and then rehydrating before the fight in order to compete several classes below his actual weight – a practice known as weight cutting.[65][65][66]
Ferriss is a practitioner of the Transcendental Meditation technique.[67]
References
- ^ Hartley, Matt (April 26, 2011). "Ottawa's Shopify launches $500,000 Build-A-Business promotion". National Post.
- ^ a b Chalupa, Andrea; Maney, Kevin (October 11, 2007). "Tim Ferriss Wants You to Get a Life". ABC News.
- ^ "Hardcover Business Best Sellers". The New York Times. August 5, 2007.
- ^ "Best Selling Books". Wall Street Journal. August 10, 2007.
- ^ Debbie Kelley (February 16, 2008). "The 4-hour workweek". Colorado Springs Gazette.
- ^ "# 5: 4 Hour Work Week". USA Today. March 30, 2008.
- ^ "Best-Selling Books, Week Ended July 6". Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Taylor, Ihsan (January 2, 2011). "Best Sellers Hardcover Advice & Misc". The New York Times.
- ^ Streitfeld, Daid (August 16, 2011). "Amazon Set to Publish Tim Ferriss". The New York Times.
- ^ "Best-Selling Books, Week Ended Nov. 25". Wall Street Journal. November 30, 2012.
- ^ [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
- ^ Wauters, Robin (April 29, 2010). "Tim "The 4-Hour Workweek" Ferriss on Angel Investing (Video)". TechCrunch.
- ^ Bertoni, Steven (April 14, 2011). "Tim Ferriss on Facebook, Twitter And Building A Huge Web Brand". Forbes.
- ^ Timothy Ferriss ’00, Princeton Alumni Weekly; accessed September 4, 2017.
- ^ Hall, Cornelia (May 9, 2007). "Ferriss '00 takes the day off". The Daily Princetonian.
- ^ a b c Rosenbloom, Stephanie (March 25, 2011). "The World According to Tim Ferriss". The New York Times.
- ^ Bowers, Brent (June 13, 2007). "In the Hunt; The Hectic Chronicles". New York Times.
- ^ Ferriss, Tim (September 5, 2007). "How I Work". CNN Money. Retrieved April 5, 2008.
- ^ Tim Ferriss Wants You to Get a Life, ABC News, October 11, 2007.
- ^ Warrillow, John (October 6, 2010). "Why Tim Ferriss Sold His Muse". The Globe and Mail. Toronto.
- ^ Warrillow, John (November 11, 2010). "Why Tim Ferriss Sold His Muse". Inc. Magazine.
- ^ Marketing Ideas #17 Tim Ferriss Trial by Fire on the History Channel Archived July 25, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Unconventional Marketing, December 3, 2008.
- ^ "Tim Ferriss Experiment". iTunes.
- ^ a b Ha, Anthony. "'4 Hour Workweek' Author Tim Ferriss Is Becoming An Audiobook Publisher". TechCrunch.
- ^ "Tim Ferriss book club".
- ^
- Hartley, Matt. Ottawa’s Shopify launches $500,000 Build-A-Business promotion, National Post, April 26, 2011. "This year, participants will receive advice on building their fledgling businesses from some of the most well-regarded names from the startup and technology worlds – including prominent angel investor Tim Ferriss."
- Hill, Kashmir. Taking My Measure. Forbes. April 6, 2011.
- ^
- Tim "The 4-Hour Workweek" Ferriss On Angel Investing (Video). TechCrunch. "Some of the companies he's invested in and/or acts as an advisor for are Digg, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Posterous, SimpleGeo and DailyBurn."
- Bertoni, Steven. Tim Ferriss On Facebook, Twitter And Building A Huge Web Brand, Forbes. April 14, 2011. "Q: You were an early investor in Twitter, what did you see in the company? A: I'm involved with the Tech scene and companies ranging from Facebook, Stumbleupon and Twitter. I knew a number of the guys and a number of the investors. I decided to invest when I saw Twitter..."
- Wauters, Robin. Tim Ferriss Joins Startup Evernote As Strategic Advisor. TechCrunch. May 18, 2010.
- Moran, Gwen. Big Investors Are Helping Trippy Go the Distance MSNBC. June 9, 2012. "First, he approached Tim Ferriss, author of the bestselling book The 4-Hour Workweek, to be an advisor. Ferriss wanted in—and also wanted to be part of the seed investing team..."
- Busque, Leah. "The Best $750 I Ever Spent Bootstrapping My Startup: One Plane Ticket West", The Huffington Post, January 18, 2012.
- Rao, Leena. Kevin Rose Invests In Facebook On SecondMarket, TechCrunch.com, January 29, 2011.
- Kingcaid, Jason Feel the DailyBurn TechCrunch. May 26, 2009.
- ^ Byrnes, Brendan. "An Interview With Tim Ferriss, Author of "The 4-Hour Workweek"". Motley Fool.
- ^ Mangalindan, JP. "Tim Ferriss: Tech has too much 'dumb capital'". Fortune.
- ^ Constine, Josh. "Betaworks And Tim Ferriss Among First Using General Solicitation To Ask Crowds For Investment". TechCrunch.
- ^ Kumparak, Greg. "Shyp Raises $2.1M To Pick Up And Ship Your Stuff". TechCrunch.
- ^ Gibbon, Kevin (March 27, 2018). "I Can't Wait for You to See What We Do Next". LinkedIn.com.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Harry
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Notable Angel Investors". New York Times.
- ^ "Tim Ferriss: How travel helped me learn to kick ass". CNN.
- ^ "How to Say "No" When It Matters Most".
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(help) - ^ "Tim Ferriss, 39". Fortune.
- ^ "How Tim Ferriss Became the 'Oprah of Audio'—Behind the Podcast With 70M-Plus Downloads". The Observer. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
- ^ "Give Yourself That Extra Kick With These Podcasts From the Likes of Tim Ferriss and Gary Vaynerchuk". Entrepreneur Magazine. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
- ^ "The Golden Kitty Awards: 2015 Winners". Product Hunt.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Fear{less} with Tim Ferriss". Show Experience.
- ^ MEAD, REBECCA. "Better, Faster, Stronger". The New Yorker.
- ^ Schawbel, Dan. "Tim Ferriss: What Cooking Can Teach You About Learning". Forbes.
- ^ Guo, Jerry (January 4, 2011). "The World's Best Guinea Pig". Newsweek.
- ^ "Digital Power Index: Personalities". Newsweek. Archived from the original on June 25, 2012.
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suggested) (help) - ^ "Aspen Institute Names 2009 Henry Crown Fellows". The Aspen Institute. March 30, 2009.
- ^ "Inside Fortune's 2016 40 Under 40". Fortune.
- ^ Hannessian, Kevin (February 15, 2008). "Fast Company's Most Innovative Business People of 2007". Fast Company. Archived from the original on April 29, 2008.
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suggested) (help) - ^ "Most Highlighted Books of All Time". Amazon.com. Archived from the original on January 12, 2013. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
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suggested) (help) - ^ Chafkin, Max. "19 Blogs You Should Bookmark Right Now – Tim Ferriss". Inc.
- ^ Tweney, Dylan (March 31, 2008). "Tim Ferriss Takes Wired.com's Self-Promotion Prize". Wired.
- ^ Ferriss, Tim (October 9, 2007). "The Karmic Capitalist: Should I Wait Until I'm Rich to Give Back?". The Huffington Post.
- ^ "Meet the Team". DonorsChoose.org.
- ^ "Tim Ferriss' Give-Back Birthday". DonorsChoose.org.
- ^ "LitLiberation". Donorschoose.org.
- ^ Ferriss, Tim (May 12, 2009). "Measuring Social Media Campaigns: A Philanthropic Case Study". The Huffington Post.
- ^ Rebecca Grant (July 27, 2012). "The four-hour impact: Tim Ferriss partners with Vittana to raise $100K by midnight". VentureBeat.
- ^ Kitchen, Patricia. "Author Tim Ferriss 'flash funds' 145 school projects on LI". Newsday.
- ^ Lee, Rebecca. "Stephen Colbert unveils donors for #BestSchoolDay". CBS News.
- ^ Boyle, Josh. "4th Annual BUILDFest to Honor Tim Ferriss with BUILDer Award for Innovation & Entrepreneurship". VentureFizz.
- ^ "BUILDFEST — BUILD BOSTON'S ANNUAL GALA AND STUDENT BUSINESS EXPO". Boston Charity Events.
- ^ a b CARLTON, JIM. "Venture Capitalists Help Connect Low-Income Students With Elite Colleges". Wall Street Journal.
- ^ a b LEBOWITZ, SHANA. "'4-hour Workweek' author Tim Ferriss plans to donate $100,000 toward studying how to treat depression with psychedelics like magic mushrooms". Business Insider.
- ^ "Reddit AMA". Retrieved November 22, 2017.
- ^ a b "The 7 Commandments of Blogosphere (and Life) Self-Defense", Ferriss' blog, August 2007
- ^
- Tweneymail, Dylan. Tim Ferriss’ Four-Hour Work Week. Wired. March 16, 2007.
- Brickman, Sophie. Tim Ferriss has strong likes: knives, kettlebells. San Francisco Chronicle. January 15, 2012.
- ^ "Transcendental Meditation: More Than a Stress Buster". HuffPost. February 5, 2016.
External links
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- Henry Crown Fellows
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers